Employment Law Blog

The Government has today published its response to its consultation on the transparency in supply chain provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The Act, which was passed earlier this year, includes a provision requiring large companies to publish an annual statement regarding their efforts to combat modern slavery within their own organisations and within their supply chains.

The size of companies affected will now be set at the lowest threshold upon which the Government consulted - £36 million. According to the consultation, the intention for the Regulations, which are due in October, is that the turnover threshold will be measured on global group turnover regardless of the size of the organisation's operation in the UK.

The annual statement must be signed off at board level and published on an organisation's website with a link from the home page. The statement should cover the entirety of the organisation's operations – which seems to mean the holding company and all subsidiaries globally along with all of their supply chains.